In the dying days of the second world war, the Nazis are on the run, torching the evidence and leaving their children to wander the village streets where the charred remnants of incriminating documents float like gossamer on the breeze. Australian director Cate Shortland's drama is overflowing with such poetic visual touches, conjuring up a fairytale landscape of long shadows, wafting curtains and waving fronds. And yet, as with all the best fairytales, there is a blackness and brutality at its centre. Teenage Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) leads the good Nazi offspring away through the forest. She battles starvation and fends off the advances of the Jewish runaway she regards as a wolf. Ahead lies a cottage and safety, and a supposed happy ending, with a sting in its tail.